“That goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills…And new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.”
"We choose to go to the Moon", officially titled the Address at Rice University on the Nation's Space Effort, is a September 12, 1962, speech by United States President John F. Kennedy to further inform the public about his plan to land a man on the Moon before 1970.
Kennedy gave the speech, largely written by presidential advisor and speechwriter Ted Sorensen, to a large crowd at Rice University Stadium in Houston, Texas. (wikipedia)
Excerpt (edited)
But I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
Why some say the moon?
Why choose this as our goal?
And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain?
We choose to go to the moon not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.
Because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.
Many years ago, the great British Explorer, George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest was asked, why did he want to climb it?
He said, because it is there.
Well, space is there and we're going to climb it.
And the moon and the planets are there.
And new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.
And therefore, as we set sail, we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.
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